


HIgh School A/U

by ChElFi



Series: Road to Nowhere [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Normal High School, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2015-09-29
Packaged: 2018-04-23 23:37:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4896634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChElFi/pseuds/ChElFi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abaondoned High School Alternate Universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	HIgh School A/U

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this on tumblr a bit ago. It had great potential for terrible pain, the warning would have been graphic depictions of violence and rape/non-con, but my PTSD won't let me finish it due to the violent ending, and I haven't been able to deviate from that ending in my mind. :) 
> 
> Anyway, this is the first of several abandoned works that I will be posting in this "Road to Nowhere" series. If anyone wants to pick them up, you are welcome to, just give appropriate credit. There is a chance that, at some point in the future, I might try to add chapters to these stories. We'll see how it goes. 
> 
> Lots of typos and bad grammar I'm sure, as it is only lightly edited.

Seventeen year old Maria Hill had just opened her locker door to trade out her Calculus book for Advanced Physics when she heard a voice calling her name. She turned to see Alexis Crane walking her way. Maria ignored her, the same way she ignored everyone at Shield Academy, and pulled out her Physics text and binder.

“Maria!” Alexis was bubbling. Maria hated bubbling people. She knew there was something wrong with them at some level. Maybe no one’s life was as terrible as hers, but no one’s was that good either.

“Hey, are you going to Physics?” Alexis continued, undaunted by Maria’s obviously cold demeanor.

Maria glanced down at the book in her hands then turned her gaze to Alexis. Her look was bored as she replied.

“No, I’m going to my basket weaving class,” she deadpanned.

Alexis only laughed hysterically.

“Oh, gosh, Maria, you are so hilarious,” she said when she’d controlled herself a bit more. “No wonder Steve likes you so much.”

Maria allowed herself one surprised blink before she completely masked her face.

“Steve who?” Maria asked.

“Rogers, of course,” Alexis replied with a too sweet smile.

“If you’re trying to steal my lab partner, the answer is ‘no,’” Maria said.

She had suffered through three years of worthless and lazy science lab partners before landing Steve Rogers this, their senior year. She’d probably physically fight anyone who tried to take him away from her.

“I wouldn’t dream of coming between the two of you,” Alexis said as the look on her face slowly became dreamy.

Maria narrowed her eyes at the girl. This was odd behavior, even for a high school girl. After a moment, though, she just shook her head and shut her locker door.

“Oh, come on,” Alexis continued as she followed Maria down the hall. “Everyone knows there’s something going on between you two.”

Maria stopped mid-stride, her jaw clenched and she took a deep breath before she turned back to this girl who was more annoying than a gnat but school rules disallowed her smacking her.

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“Oh, please, it’s so obvious,” Alexis said. “The way he looks at you.”

Alexis stared at her for a moment before her face took on a surprised look.

“You mean you haven’t noticed?”

Maria only glared at her then turned on her heel and headed to class.

* * *

“What’s wrong with you, Rogers?” Maria asked.

Steve had missed his shot with the basketball for the fifth time from a spot on the court he usually had no trouble making it from.

Their Physics teacher, much to Maria’s disappointment, was a huge sports fan and had decided a great lab project for Rogers (and Maria supposed whomever had ended up his lab partner) to do was to chart how often he made a basket from certain locations on the court.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “My head’s just not in the game today.”

“Well, get it in the game,” Maria retorted. “This is a stupid assignment and I want to get it over with.”

She looked at her watch and saw it was nearly 4pm. She needed to be home and have dinner on the table by the time her father got home at 5:30.

“Do you need to leave?” he asked.

Maria looked up, startled that she hadn’t noticed he’d approached her.

“I, uh,” Maria’s voice caught.

Something in Steve’s gaze reminded her of Alexis’ words earlier. Was there something to how Steve looked at her? She’d never noticed anything before today.

She shook herself internally, it was just the power of suggestion, she reasoned.

“No, but soon,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I’ll try harder.”

Fortunately, things got better after that. Though Steve thought he should throw some off just for good measure.

“I get the feeling he’s actually trying to bet on shot locations during the game,” he explained as they walked out of the gym.

“People do that?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “People will bet on anything.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” she said.

She was about to tell him good night when he stopped her.

“Since we had to stay late, why don’t you let me drive you home?” he asked.

She eyed him suspiciously for a moment.

“I’m not going to try anything, Hill,” he said. “I’m just offering you a ride.”

She nodded slightly, but she still wasn’t convinced he was only trying to be nice.

“Well, I don’t know if you’ll make it home alive in that Beemer of yours if you go into my neighborhood,” she explained.

Steve nodded.

“Why don’t you let me worry about that?” he asked.

Maria sighed.

“Alright,” she said. “It’s your funeral.”

Steve smiled at her then led her to his car.

Maria was self-conscious as he opened the door for her and she sat down in the front passenger seat. It was still new enough that Maria could smell the new car smell over the leather seats. She was certain she’d never sat inside such a nice vehicle.

Steve got into the driver’s seat after he deposited his backpack in the trunk. As they drove the five miles from school to Maria’s rundown neighborhood near the south side of Chicago, she and Steve made easy conversation about their classes. She’d grown to like Steve on an almost personal level since they’d become lab partners. The previous two years, she’d watched him from afar. Jealous of whomever was his partner, Steve was the best in their classes aside from her. Even in AP classes, Maria always seemed stuck with the person who had, to that point, got by on their charm and their money.

Steve wasn’t like that at all. She knew he didn’t come from money and had only ended up at Shield Academy because he was an orphan who’d come to live with his friend’s family from New York. He had a great work ethic and Maria was finally relaxed, at least in Physics.

“So, did you hear back from any school’s yet?” Steve asked.

Maria shook her head.

“It’s still early,” she said. “Unless you’re a sport’s star.”

Maria chuckled as Steve blushed. She had to say, she really enjoyed making him do that. He was so different than the other kids in her school. They were all rich and had most things handed to them. They had no idea what it was to work for something, and they definitely had no sense of true humility.

“I don’t know about star,” Steve said.

Maria coughed and Steve finally laughed.

“I guess some people think I have potential,” he said. “But lots of guys do. There are more high schools than colleges and universities and there are star quarterbacks in most of those schools.”

“Yeah, but you’re All-American,” she reminded him.

Steve sighed and grimaced.

“You don’t like it?” Maria asked.

“It’s OK,” he said. “I just hate all it comes with.”

“You mean groupies?” Maria asked, though hesitantly.

Steve showed a great trepidation around the girls who were always throwing themselves at him. He’d had a girlfriend when they were in tenth grade, a few months after he’d moved here, but that had lasted only a brief while and he hadn’t dated since.

“Yeah, groupies,” he said.

His face darkened and Maria let the subject drop.

She gave him directions once they exited the parkway.

As the area got bleaker, Maria prepared herself for the inevitable comment. But when it came, it wasn’t at all what she expected.

“This reminds me of my old neighborhood in Brooklyn,” he said.

Maria looked at him in surprise. She had gathered he didn’t come from money, but she hadn’t expected that.

When he pulled up outside her building, he turned to her and Maria was again caught off-guard by his look.

“I was wondering if you were going to…” but something in the corner of her eye caused Maria’s blood to run cold.

“Oh, no!” she exclaimed. “He’s early.”

Steve turned to look in the direction she had just been looking.

“What do you mean…” he started.

“I gotta go,” she said, trying to force down the fear of seeing her father returned early from work and staring at the BMW from their front stoop.

She grabbed her bag and jumped out of the car. As she walked around the car to cross the street, she tried to ignore the dark look her father gave her. His gaze bore into her as she approached and just before she passed him on the steps he started in on her.

“Was it worth the ride, whore?” he said, quietly so no one nearby would hear him.

Maria didn’t turn to him, she just ducked her head and pulled open the door to the building and ran up the stairs. She knew what was coming, but maybe she could put it off if she could barricade herself in her room before he caught up to her.

* * *

Steve stared after Maria, confused by her behavior at first, then understanding dawned as he watched the interaction between her and the man on the stairs. He wasn’t entirely sure who the man was, but he followed Maria into the building. She must have been late getting home. Steve cursed himself for not driving faster. He’d known she seemed worried about the time, that’s why he offered her the ride.

As he pulled away from the neighborhood he felt a pang of nostalgia. He’d always liked his neighborhood in Brooklyn. It wasn’t the greatest, but his mom had been there and she knew how to make everything good. They’d once lived in a nicer neighborhood, but after her MS had gotten so bad she couldn’t work anymore, they’d had to downgrade. Still, she taught Steve to make the most of it.

It hadn’t been easy. Steve couldn’t tolerate bullies, and their streets were full of them. By the time he was in high school she had tried to get him to go live with Bucky’s family in Chicago, but he wouldn’t leave her. In the end he was glad he hadn’t, she was gone only a year later and he started tenth grade at Shield Academy.

He’d watched Maria Hill out of the corner of his eye since the first day of Advanced Biology. She’d been the only person in class responding to any of the teacher’s questions. He’d thought about answering but had been so mesmerized by her. When he’d told Bucky about it later, his friend had spent a month singing “She Blinded Me with Science” to him under his breath whenever Maria came into view. He remained silent about his interest in her since then.

His first year Bucky had been his lab partner. While the two were best friends, being lab partners while adjusting to living together, was a bit much. The next year they opted to let the teacher choose, as usual, and Steve had ended up with a girl who knew less about Chemistry than a lab rat.

Well, he chastised himself, that wasn’t entirely true. It was just that she spent most of their time gazing dreamily at him, then giggling whenever he tried to talk to her about their lab. She did OK work, but it was nothing that was going to get her into a college as a science major.

He’d been at football practice for nearly a month during the summer between his junior and senior year when he saw the physics teacher show up to watch one afternoon. Steve knew the man was a huge sports fan and had never missed a school game. Mr. Pierce had spent a lot of time over the previous year talking with Steve after practices about upcoming games and Steve thought he might be able to use this association to his advantage. Mr. Pierce had agreed immediately to set him up with Maria as a lab partner to Steve’s relief.

He hadn’t wanted anything more with Maria than to be her lab partner and possibly her friend. He’d been burned so badly by his first girlfriend, that he didn’t want anything to do with dating or romance. But Maria was different. Maria wasn’t the type of girl who crushed on everyone she saw at school. She didn’t giggle. She didn’t make doe eyes or slip perfumed notes into lockers. In fact, Steve was fairly certain that he was one of the few people at school she’d ever spoken to.

It was that fact that Alexis had told him keyed her into Maria’s interest in him. She didn’t talk with anyone. She wasn’t friendly with anyone. But she talked with Steve, of course, it was only about Physics, and she was at least not cold to Steve. He’d considered it all day since she’d told him in Economics that morning and wondered if there wasn’t something to it. But Maria was her usual self during class, then after school just now. The only unusual thing that had happened was when they’d arrived at her apartment.  
The guilt invaded Steve’s mind again. He really hoped Maria wasn’t in too much trouble.

* * *

The next morning he passed Maria in the hall between first and second periods. He noted she had her usual cold and untouchable look about her, but also that she was carrying her books in her right arm. Maria usually carried them in her left. When they were taking notes in Calculus, Steve noticed she held her left arm close to her side instead of resting it at the top of her paper as she usually did when she wrote.

“What happened to your arm?”

Steve surprised Maria at her locker after school so much she actually jumped.

“Rogers, I swear, it’s a good thing I don’t know any self-defense moves, or you’d probably be dead right now,” she said, then turned and walked away without answering his question.

Steve followed her out the front of the building and down the sidewalk as she quickly made her way to the bus stop. She was carrying her back pack only on her right shoulder when she normally carried it on both, her arm she still held close to her side. She was fast and had incredible reflexes, Steve noticed as she wove her way easily through the crowd of people exiting the school. Steve had more trouble but he’d almost caught up to her when someone accidentally bumped her left arm.

Maria let out a gasp and swore at the poor freshman. The boy looked up in terror then ran quickly away. Maria took a deep breath and Steve could see her face change as she masked the pain. Steve had honestly never seen anything like it. One minute she looked as if the pain was so great she wouldn’t be able to move, the next she was her old, cold self. He stared at her back as she walked away, unsure what he had just witnessed but feeling that if he pursued her he would be violating her privacy.

“What do you know about Maria Hill?” Steve ventured with Bucky once they were at home in their room.

“Aside from the fact that she blinded you with science?” Bucky threw one of his dirty socks he’d just removed at Steve.

“Nice,” Steve grimaced at him and threw the sock into the hamper.

“There’s not a whole lot anyone knows about her,” Bucky said. “She’s a scholarship kid who should probably be only a junior in high school.”

“So she skipped a grade, as well?” Steve asked.

“That’s what I heard,” Bucky said.

Steve walked over to the window and looked down on the back garden of the North Chicago home.

“What happened?” Bucky asked.

Steve shook his head, he only had suspicions and he didn’t want to make trouble for Maria unless necessary.

“Don’t give me that,” Bucky said and walked over to him. “I know that look.”

Steve looked up at him in question.

“Oh, please,” he said. “That’s your ‘I think someone’s doing something bad and I have to stop it’ look.’”

Steve sighed again and walked over to his bed to sit.

“I took Maria home last night,” Steve said and was grateful Bucky didn’t make some snide remark.

“There was a man outside and he was looking at her.” Steve tried to recall exactly what he’d seen the night before. “I think it was her father, but he was really mad.”

Steve looked at his hands as he tried to put into words his thoughts.

“And,” Bucky interrupted his quiet with an agitated wave of his hand. Steve realized he’d been silent for a while.

“Today her arm was hurt really badly,” Steve said.

Steve looked up at Bucky who had a look of concern on his face. He almost smiled at his friend, Bucky really did know him well.

“So should we go take him out back and give him a thrashing of his own?” Bucky asked.

“I don’t know if that’s what it is yet,” Steve said.

Bucky nodded then surprised him by his next question.

“Did you ask her to Winter Formal?”

Steve groaned. He’d intended to the previous day, then hadn’t because she’d interrupted him. Foolishly he’d mentioned it to Bucky who was now probably never going to let him off the hook about it.

“No, I was going to after school but I was worried about her arm,” he said. “I asked her about it and she basically ran away from me without answering.”

Bucky’s face grew serious.

“I’ll talk to my mom but I’m almost certain that’s a sign she’s being abused by someone,” he said. “Maybe not her dad, but someone.”

Dinner ended up being a tense meal after Bucky and Steve presented their concerns to Bucky’s parents. They both told them it did sound suspicious but that the most they could do was keep an eye on their friend. Then Bucky had to ruin everything with his next comment.

“Oh, I think Steve intends to do just that,” he said with a wry grin.

Steve blushed to the roots of his hair.

“You like her?” Bucky’s mom asked.

“Yeah, I guess,” Steve said with a shrug.

“Are you going to ask her to the winter formal?” Bucky’s dad asked.

“I’m thinking of it,” he replied. He really didn’t want to talk about it because it might lead to a conversation he never wanted to have again.

“I think it’s great,” Bucky’s mom said. “She sounds like just your type.”

All three males at the table turned to her in surprise.

“She doesn’t even play sports,” Bucky said. “I’m pretty sure she hates them in fact.”

Steve nodded.

“But Steve only does that for fun,” his mom said.

That surprised Steve. No one ever acknowledged that. Even the high school counsellor was trying to direct him away from his first college picks because they weren’t necessarily sports schools, more academic.

Bucky looked at him.

“Really?” he asked. But Bucky’s mom wasn’t usually wrong about these things.

Steve cleared his throat and nodded at his friend.

“Wow,” Bucky said. “I’d hate to see what you could do if you were really serious about it.”

“Why don’t you invite her over for dinner?” Bucky’s father suggested, turning the subject away from sports.

Steve swallowed thickly as panic began to rise in his chest.

“Come on,” Bucky said. “You two are friends, right? Just ask her as a friend.”

Steve could feel three pairs of eyes on him.

“Um,” he tried to formulate a reply. He did like Maria, a lot. But at the same time he was terrified to try to have anything more with her.

“I think it would be a good start,” Bucky’s mom said.

Steve looked at her. He knew what she was trying to do.

“Steve, you can’t hide forever,” she said. “Most people are actually good people. Don’t let one bad relationship ruin your future.”

He sighed in resignation.

“OK,” he said.

“Gosh, you make it sound like we just gave you the death sentence,” Bucky laughed.

They were silent for a few minutes before Bucky spoke up.

“You know, if you really don’t want to ask her, I always could.”

Steve looked up sharply at Bucky.

“You wouldn’t,”

Bucky shrugged, but he had that look in his eye that he always got when he was thinking about a girl he liked.

“She’s not really my type, but she is kindy cute, and spunky, yeah, she’s got some real spunk.”

“Bucky, stop teasing Steve,” Bucky’s father broke in.

Bucky laughed, and Steve knew that though he was teasing, Bucky might just do that, just to try to push Steve into action. In the old days, all someone would have had to do was to dare him or challenge him, and Steve would feel compelled to act. Now, at least as far as girls went, Steve was terrified. He didn’t want to be hurt as badly as he’d been last time.


End file.
